How often do you review, refine and improve your products or services?

Many small business owners get comfortable with what they offer. It feels familiar to them. Their clients or customers seldom complain. So, understandably, they keep things as they are.

Here’s the thing: In doing so, those business owners are missing out on a huge opportunity. They are also putting the future of their business at risk.

Why? Because the marketplace is always changing. It’s in a constant state of flux. The providers who fail to embrace the changing landscape, tend to have their lunch eaten by their more agile competitors. As competitors develop products and services that offer increasing value, the business owners who stand still, find they lose clients and fail to attract as many new clients.

Google and Perpetual Beta

One of the keys to Google’s success was their commitment to constant improvement. They embraced a concept known as Perpetual Beta. The term Perpetual Beta, refers to software or systems that are in a development stage for an indefinite or extended period of time. Google create a product and then constantly look for ways to make it better. Gmail, for instance, was a beta product for over 5 years and is still regularly updated.

What this means to you

The best businesses adopt a similar approach to Google. They are consistently looking for ways to improve what they do.

I suggest you do the same and review your current products or services. Look for ways to increase their value to your clients and prospective clients.

If you look hard enough, you will find something to improve. How can I be so sure? Simple. There’s no such thing as the perfect business, which means you will always be able to enhance, improve and advance.

I would like to talk with you today about the visibility of your business. Plus, I’m going to share a huge, extremely valuable FREE marketing guide with you!

I was prompted to write today’s post, by an email I received from one of my long time readers. With his permission, I’d like to show you a little of what he told me:

“Back in March, I closed my business and took a job working for a former competitor of mine. […] As I’d long suspected their service is inferior to what I was offering, but they market it way better than I did. They are making a ton of money and I couldn’t even make a living.”

How visible are you?

One of the hard facts of business is this.

An average service that’s well marketed will always generate massively more money, than a great service, which too few people know about.

Think about it: People can’t hire you, if they don’t know you exist — regardless of how amazing you are.

Just consider those painters, composers and writers, whose genius was only appreciated after their death. They produced classics, yet lack of visibility stopped them receiving the recognition they deserved, during their lifetime.

A great example is Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick. Melville was unable to make a living as a writer, so he worked at various jobs, including working on the New York docks. It was decades after his death that a revival of his work took place and the world became aware of Herman Melville’s great talent. The talent was always there. The books were always there. His work simply lacked the visibility it needed.

How to massively improve your marketing. Right now!

You do amazing work. You care passionately about your customers. You work hard. You deserve to enjoy the rewards.

That’s why I’ve put together this huge, free marketing guide for you. It’s almost four thousand words long and contains marketing ideas and tactics to help you and your business succeed. You can read it now by clicking here.

If opportunity came knocking at your door today, how prepared would your business be?

I spoke with a business owner recently, whose website was featured on a very popular podcast. Within seconds of her website being mentioned, it crashed under all that traffic.

She explained:

[…] “I spent years trying to get my website noticed. Then, when it finally happened and thousands of people were heading to my site, my $10 a month cheapo hosting couldn’t cope. So, I missed the opportunity to get my site and services in front of thousands of highly-targeted people. It’s made me sick to my stomach.”

That’s just one example of missing an amazing opportunity, by failing to plan for success. There are many, many others.

Sounds terrible

Another common example are those business owners we hear on the radio, who are offering their expert opinion on a news story. They often sound terrible and are never invited back, because they failed to invest in media coaching or presentation training. So, instead of sounding authoritative and informed, they sound flustered and unsure. Instead of boosting their reputation with thousands of prospective clients, they miss out. All because they were unprepared when opportunity came knocking.

In short: Whatever opportunities you are hoping to benefit from with your business, make sure you are prepared in advance. Invest in what you need. Don’t allow poor planning to rob you of an amazing opportunity.

Yesterday, I wrote about the importance of attracting referrals, rather than pestering people for referrals. You can read that post here. Today, I’d like to share a proven way to get people talking about your business for all the right reasons.

Let’s look at enthusiasm

When we speak and act with enthusiasm, it spreads like a virus. It changes the way people think and feel about us.

Here are just a few examples:

It captures people’s interest.

It motivates people to want to know more.

It inspires people to talk about us.

It creates confidence, which makes people feel comfortable recommending us (and buying from us).

Of course, the opposite is also true.

Let’s look at pessimism

When we speak with pessimism, it spreads like a virus to everyone around us. Pessimism also changes the way people think and feel about us, this time in a totally negative way.

For example:

It causes people to feel pessimistic about us.

It destroys confidence in our business.

It repels motivated, inspirational people.

It attracts others, who are similarly pessimistic.

Most small business owners sit somewhere between enthusiastic and pessimistic. They neither inspire people or drive them away. This neutral position is hurting their business and it’s 100% unnecessary.

Fire up your enthusiasm

If your business isn’t attracting the word of mouth referrals you need, try cranking up your enthusiasm.

Remember: No one is going to feel enthusiastic about our business, until we transfer our enthusiasm to them.